WORCESTER City Art Gallery and Museum will host the prestigious exhibition, New Art West Midlands, for the first time ever this February.

The show is billed as "a region-wide showcase of some of the most exciting emerging artists in the region".

A spokesman said. "Opening on Saturday February 18, the exhibitions include brand new painting, installation, sculpture, photography, video, animation and digital artworks, and together give an insight into the latest trends and concerns in contemporary art.

"Visitors to Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum can see Lindy Brett’s video and sound work Observations, which is inspired by the Lovell Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank. You can listen to recordings of the voices of engineers and astronomers who work on the telescope – not-to-mention the extra-terrestrial sounds that their activity produces."

The spokesman added: "There are even photographs by Henry Rice, who has manipulated eighteenth century oil paintings using digital technology."

Henry added: "When I saw the Mona Lisa for the first time I could not help but feel underwhelmed; I concluded that because I had seen her face so repeatedly on TV, that these mediated versions had become my defining image”.

With the world’s finest art available at the touch of a button, Henry set out to explore the positive and negative impact of how people respond to paintings.

The result is eighteenth century art; but not as we know it.

In another Worcester connection, three graduates from the University of Worcester - Katie Hodson, Amy Inston and Abigail Day - will display their artworks at New Art West Midlands.

Amy Inston’s video Pipe Dream will be exhibited at Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

A spokesman said: "A warm-hearted yet bitter-sweet look at Birmingham life, the film records life in Amy’s family home, which is filled with knick-knacks found in car boot sales and pictures of idols from American popular culture.

"Abigail Day presents sculptures inspired by mid-20th century Brutalist architecture at Worcester City Art Gallery, and Katie Hodson presents an installation at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery."